Planet 51 - Crash Landing  
| I have been waiting for this movie for most of my life.
I know that seems like a strange comment to make about a second rate animated feature but it is kinda true. I remember thinking as a child, after watching Close Encounters, that it would be really fascinating to see a movie about another planet being invaded by us. Why was it always "aliens" coming to Earth? What if we were the aliens? How would we been seen?
When I saw the trailers for Planet 51 I thought someone had finally got it.
I was wrong.
The critics are right on this one. This film takes a great idea and smushes it into the toilet. Once the set up is there, the film takes a farcical (and not in a good way) approach with stupid humour and cliches. For a film that was trying to be funny, I never laughed once. And for those who wondered if Dwayne Johnson could overact even as a voice actor in a cartoon, well now you know he certainly can!
The film never does any interesting deconstruction of the genre, or the politics of the genre. There are moments when you think there is something inspired (a scene where a teen couple is terrorized by a monster on "make-out-point" and she says "I know this would happen if we made out!") but then the film digresses into its insipid writing again.
What a wasted opportunity! Okay, I know a lot of you are thinking "what is he talking about, this is just a kids movie?" Well, my response to that is that this is a very good idea and one that should be explored. This is not the vehicle for it.
Even if I put all my disappointment aside and just judge it based on light, family entertainment, it still fails. As I mentioned, the jokes are so lame I didn't laugh and I hardly heard any laughing from the little ones in the audience with me. The plot is predictable and boring. The movie ultimately forgettable.
Skip this voyage and wait until some one does this idea some justice.
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